Lessons Unlearned

Much of the talk about the fairness of the tax code and the extension of the Bush tax cuts is just thinly veiled class warfare. By focusing on billionaires and millionaires we lose sight of the far more mundane reality.

The First Fight Against Religious Persecution

Dec. 01, 2010

Jeff Jacoby writes a great and insightful summary of The Triumph of Chanukah excerpt But Chanukah isn’t about political power. It isn’t about military victory. It isn’t even about freedom of worship, notwithstanding the fact that the revolt of the

Unleashing Imagination

Nov. 29, 2010

Whether his interests center round his own physical needs, or whether his he takes a warm interest in the welfare of every human being he knows (altruism), the ends about which he can be concerned will always be only an

An Unwanted Journey

Nov. 28, 2010

It is not difficult to see what must be the consequence when democracy embarks on a course of planning which in its execution requires more agreement than in fact exists. The people may have agreed on adopting a system of

Self Defeating Progressivism

Nov. 25, 2010

There are two particular targets of American progressive political ideology: special interests and the curse of bigness, primarily in business. But the preferred solution of the progressives, central planning and regulation, only serve to make these matters worse. The proliferation

Rebelyid on the Cordoba House Mosque

Nov. 23, 2010

The zoning of the Mosque is an issue for the city. We may have an opinion, but it is a local zoning issue. We either have religious tolerance or we do not. We either believe in freedom of religion or

The Mythological Rich

Nov. 22, 2010

There is a video of Alan Grayson showing how the wealthy can spend the tax cut that they will get from extending the Bush tax cuts. If such monumental ignorance and bias had come from some second rate academic at

A Different Standard

Nov. 21, 2010

When critics of Israel are labeled anti-Semitic, the question arises, “when is criticism of Israel not anti-Semitic?” Alan Dershowitz answered this question as clearly as it can be; it is anti-Semitic when you hold Israel to a standard that you

Mission Creep at the Fed

Nov. 20, 2010

The most misunderstood aspect of the success of the Reagan led supply side revolution was the monetary aspect. The idea adapted from Robert Mundell’s theory was that the Fed should focus ONLY on monetary matters and that fiscal policy should

Liquidity and Solvency

Nov. 19, 2010

There are many small business people who contend that they cannot get a loan. The press reports that banks are sitting on their money and not loaning any. They are just making a safe spread between very low bank rates

The Greenspan Put

Nov. 18, 2010

The famous “Greenspan put” was based on the (empirically well- founded) belief that the U.S. central bank would resist raising interest rates in response to a sharp upward spike in asset prices (and therefore not undo them) but would react

The Big Lie

Nov. 17, 2010

from guest blogger- Gary Meyers There is so much wrong about Liberals, but the thing they mostly get wrong is their misunderstanding of the relationship between tax revenues and tax rates. Throughout history, nearly every income tax rate cut resulted

Why Government Debt is More Dangerous than Private Debt

Nov. 16, 2010

What is certainly clear is that again and again, countries, banks, individuals, and firms take on excessive debt in good times without enough awareness of the risks that will follow when the inevitable recession hits. Many players in the global

Beyond Liberal and Conservative

Nov. 13, 2010

On an interview on the C-Span TV show, Booknotes, Jonah Goldberg, author of Liberal Fascism (highly recommended), spoke of two kinds of conservatives. The first is anti-liberal; they believe that there is a place for central government control, but that

Delusional Invincibility

Nov. 10, 2010

..one of the main this-time-is-different syndromes had to do with a belief in the invincibility of modern monetary institutions. Central banks became enamored with their own versions of “inflation targeting,” believing that they had found a way both to keep

The Limits of the Federal Reserve

Nov. 09, 2010

Kevin Warsh writes in the Wall Street Journal, The New Malaise and How to End It. I have contended that the Fed under Bernanke is committed to doing whatever it takes to stimulate the economy, but that any benefit of

Kosher Politics

Nov. 07, 2010

Political reform has failed in the past because those who claimed to want change just wanted to throw the other bums out. As long as their bum “brought home the bacon” they remained content. The obvious result of everyone wanting

The Tea Party Faces Limits

Nov. 06, 2010

In Americans Vote for Maturity (Wall Street Journal- Opinion Journal), Peggy Noonan noted that quality still mattered in the final election: Excerpt: What the tea party, by which I mean members and sympathizers, has to learn from 2010 is this:

How About a Rally to Restore Intelligence

Nov. 06, 2010

And these people think the Tea Party folk are idiots? Perhaps we need a rally to restore intelligence.

Taleb on Regulation, Debt, & Bubbles

Nov. 06, 2010

The very astute Nassim Taleb: Regulations alone will not protect us. The regulators gave the banks the rope to hang themselves. The smaller the error rate, the more likely it is to be grossly underestimated. No bonus without malice. Cancel

Yearly Archives: 2010

Lessons Unlearned

The First Fight Against Religious Persecution

Unleashing Imagination

An Unwanted Journey

Self Defeating Progressivism

Rebelyid on the Cordoba House Mosque

The Mythological Rich

A Different Standard

Mission Creep at the Fed

Liquidity and Solvency

The Greenspan Put

The Big Lie

Why Government Debt is More Dangerous than Private Debt

Beyond Liberal and Conservative

Delusional Invincibility

The Limits of the Federal Reserve

Kosher Politics

The Tea Party Faces Limits

How About a Rally to Restore Intelligence

Taleb on Regulation, Debt, & Bubbles

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